Students who enrolled at the school in even-numbered years between 1816 and 1830 had two years of Cauchy's instruction.

That's equivalent to labeling each card randomly with a number from 1 to 20, then collecting into piles the cards with the same number, taking care to reverse the order of even-numbered piles.

The lections from the Gospels go unchanged for an alternating two years but are preceded by a reading from the First Testament different in Years I and II, the odd- and even-numbered years respectively.

an even break

What's been largely missing, though, through these pell-mell days, has been the time to rethink pat agendas rather than fit the facts around them - or the imagination to give the suckers on all sides an even break.

So they don't want to give a sucker an even break if they can possibly help it, because rotation potentially has massive implications on player's ability to be able to ply their trade.

None reaches fulfilment, for they're damned by their own mediocrity and the plain fact that a sucker never gets an even break.

of even date

And that this Conveyance is subjected [sic] to and with the benefit of the provisions contained in a certain Deed of Covenant as to draining marshes of even date herewith executed by the parties hereto…

The applicant for planning permission was this company and we enclose a copy of our letter addressed to them of even date from which you will note that weare [sic] holding them responsible for our Principal's outlays.

Why can I, as of even date, enter only three rooms without breathing in to the point of faintness due to displaced furniture?

Origin

In the sense ‘flat and smooth’, even is an Old English word. Even as in evening (Old English) is from a different Old English word, one related to German Abend ‘afternoon’. An even break, meaning ‘a fair chance’, was popularized by the American comedian W. C. Fields ( 1886–1946) in his catchphrase, ‘Never give a sucker an even break’, which itself went on to become the title of one of his best-known films. There does not seem to have been a real Stephen behind the phrase even Stephen or even Stephens, meaning ‘completely even or equal’. It probably comes from Journal to Stella by Jonathan Swift: ‘Now we are even, quoth Stephen’ ( 1711). If a ship is on an even keel it is not tilting to the side. The keel is the supporting structure along the base of a ship; even here it is in the old sense ‘in a level position, horizontal’.

noun

Origin

In the sense ‘flat and smooth’, even is an Old English word. Even as in evening (Old English) is from a different Old English word, one related to German Abend ‘afternoon’. An even break, meaning ‘a fair chance’, was popularized by the American comedian W. C. Fields ( 1886–1946) in his catchphrase, ‘Never give a sucker an even break’, which itself went on to become the title of one of his best-known films. There does not seem to have been a real Stephen behind the phrase even Stephen or even Stephens, meaning ‘completely even or equal’. It probably comes from Journal to Stella by Jonathan Swift: ‘Now we are even, quoth Stephen’ ( 1711). If a ship is on an even keel it is not tilting to the side. The keel is the supporting structure along the base of a ship; even here it is in the old sense ‘in a level position, horizontal’.